Judy Horacek

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Judy Horacek
Born1961
Melbourne, Australia
OccupationComic book/strip artist, illustrator
NationalityAustralian
Website
horacek.com.au

Judy Horacek (born 12 November 1961) is an Australian cartoonist, artist, writer and children's book creator. She is best known for her award winning children's picture book Where is the Green Sheep? with Mem Fox, and her cartoons all over the world. She has been a regular cartoonist for newspapers including The Age newspaper, The Canberra Times, The Australian or The Australia Institute Newsletter. Horacek's latest book is Now or Never (2020), her tenth cartoon collection.

Contents

In 2005, a selection of her work was acquired by the National Library of Australia for its collection. She said at the time that "I really like being recognised for having done work that is part of the social discourse. And it's always nice to see cartoons get another lease on life – now they represent a particular time and context and become part of the portrait of who we [Australians] are". [1]

Life

Horacek graduated with a BA from the University of Melbourne in 1991, majoring in Fine Arts and English. She then studied for a Diploma in Museum Studies at Victoria University. In 2007, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Visual) in Printmedia and Drawing from Australian National University.

She lives in Melbourne.

Writing

Horacek started her career as a writer, and was a member of a community writing group in North Melbourne. [2] Words are an important part of her cartoons, and sometimes dominate the pictures. [2] Her stories have appeared in a number of anthologies.

After collaborating on a children's picture book with Mem Fox, she began to write and illustrate her own children's books, something she had always wanted to do, in addition to continuing to work with Mem Fox.

Cartoons

"My life has been a quest to find new and better place to stick cartoons", Horacek has said. [3] Accordingly, her cartoons can be found in newspapers and magazines, online, on various merchandise items and as limited edition prints. [3] Her cartoons have been described as whimsical and quirky. As she says, "I take every day situations and make them strange" [4]

It was her interest in feminism which "drove Horacek's early work and established her reputation as a cartoonist". [2] Since then, in addition to an ongoing interest in women's issues, her cartoons have covered a wide range of social and political issues such as the environment, climate change, the Australian Republican Movement, immigration, indigenous issues and FlyBuys. Cartoonist Peter Nicholson describes her work as follows:

For most of her professional life her cartoons have been more on the theme of people's everyday lives and worries. When this is your subject matter you start in more of a vacuum. You need a powerful imagination, a great sense of humour, a real understanding of the human condition and you must have something to say ... there is an advantage to this type of cartoon. It has lasting value. [5]

Horacek's first commissioned work for The Age newspaper was published on International Women's Day 1995, next to the obituary of Senator Olive Zakharov. This was her cartoon, Woman with Altitude, a work which has since appeared on fridge magnets greeting cards, tea-towels and T-shirts. [6] In 2007, she said that "The woman with altitude ... represents who we could be". [4] At various times she has had regular spots in such newspapers and magazines as The Age , The Weekend Australian Magazine , The Canberra Times , the Australian Book Review , the Australia Institute newsletter and currently The Monthly .

Illustration

She illustrated Mem Fox's non-fiction book, Reading Magic , and in 2004 she illustrated her first children's book, Mem Fox's Where Is the Green Sheep? . [7] It was shortlisted for several book awards, and in 2005 won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year – Early Childhood Award and the 2005 Speech Pathology Australia Award. She has since started writing her own children's books, the first being The Story of GROWL (2007), followed by "These are My Hands" (2008), "These are My Feet" (2009) and "Yellow is my favourite colour".

Where is the Green Sheep? was published both in Australia and the USA in 2004 and has been translated into Spanish, Korean, simple Chinese, Hebrew, Krzg and two Australian Indigenous languages, Pitjantjatjara and Kriol.

In 2024 Penguin Random House released a special edition of Where is the Green Sheep? with a gold foil cover. Additionally, the Royal Australian Mint produced a commemorative 20 cent coin with a Horacek illustration derived from the original book.

Children's books

Cartoon collections

Exhibitions

Horacek has regularly shown her prints and watercolour painting in commercial galleries in solo and group exhibitions.

She has had retrospectives at the National Gallery of Victoria, Laughter, the Universe and Everything, [8] which toured regional Victoria, and at the National Museum of Australia, the exhibition I am woman hear me draw [9] in 2002. This exhibition toured throughout Australia.

Other works

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<i>Where is the Green Sheep?</i> Picture book written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek

Where is the Green Sheep? is a children's picture book by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek. Published by Penguin Books, it depicts various coloured sheep in various activities, with the protagonist, the green sheep, not being seen until the final pages.

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Ducks Away! is a 2016 children's picture book written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek. Published by Scholastic Inc., It is about a mother duck and her five ducklings attempting to cross a bridge, one by one, and fall off the bridge into the river below. The duck becomes more and more agitated until she, with the last of her ducklings dropping into the water and their encouragement, decides to follow them.

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<i>Good Night, Sleep Tight</i> (Fox book) Australian childrens picture book by Mem Fox

Good Night, Sleep Tight is a 2012 children's picture book by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek. It is about Skinny Doug, a babysitter, who uses some nursery rhymes to help his charges, Bonnie and Ben, to sleep.

<i>Bonnie and Ben Rhyme Again</i> Australian childrens picture book by Mem Fox

Bonnie and Ben Rhyme Again is a 2018 children's picture book by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek. In this book, a sequel to Good Night, Sleep Tight, two children, Bonnie and Ben, recite some nursery rhymes to their friend, Skinny Doug, while going for a walk.

<i>This & That</i> Australian childrens picture book by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

This & That is a 2015 children's picture book by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek. It is about a mouse telling bedtime stories to a pup.

<i>Lets Count Goats!</i> Australian childrens picture book by Mem Fox and Jan Thomas

Let's Count Goats! is a 2010 children's picture book by Mem Fox and illustrated by Jan Thomas. It is a counting book with the narrator inviting the reader to count goats that appear in the pictures as they engage in humanlike behaviour.

Good Night, Sleep Tight may refer to:

References

  1. ↑ Favelle (2005) p. 10
  2. 1 2 3 Favelle (2005) p. 8
  3. 1 2 Favelle (2005) p. 7
  4. 1 2 Horacek (2007)
  5. ↑ Nicholson (1999) p. x
  6. ↑ Judith Maria Horacek (2003)
  7. ↑ Favelle (2005) p. 9
  8. ↑ Beaver Galleries (2022) p. 1
  9. ↑ Beaver Galleries (2022) p. 1
Citations
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